Witness Controlling Power, Witness Proxies, and Witness Voting
Witness Voting plays a big part in Steemit. Everyone has a right to vote for 30 witnesses. But not everyone votes, and some people appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf.
A recent post from @plushzilla ‘Witness Votes - who do the witnesses vote for?’ looked at Witness popularity amongst themselves and reviled some very interesting insights
However @plushzilla suggested that we dig into the data a little deeper, so I have decided to look at a different approach. I have also had some other people also requesting a look into witness voting, so here you go!
Did you know that 4290 steemit accounts have set a proxy to do their witness voting for them? That means all of the SP owned by these 4290 accounts are in the hands of others to use as they wish on witness votes. I have identified 293 proxies
The total Vesting shares from Steemsql @ 16:34 on 07/11 was 389.74nb, of which 11% has been allocated to a proxy
The top proxies in terms of number of accounts that have set them as proxy can be seen in the table below. It’s an indicator of popularity.
However if we look at the Controlling vesting shares (which is the owned vesting shares plus the proxied vesting shares) we can see a different perspective.
Of all of the proxy accounts, @steemit has the majority with just over 60%. @pumpkin and @ned come second and third.
Looking further at the values for, @steemit have 38% control of all steem power for witness votes. @pumpkin has 4%, @ned has 2%. Actually looking at it now, 9 accounts have a 51% controlling power on Witness votes.
Just wondering something, what do you consider centralised?
But @steemit, @ned, @proskynneo do not vote for any witnesses. Also from this list of 9 accounts @blocktrades @clayop are in the top 20 witnesses. Both vote for each other as a witness, between both of these accounts, they control 5% of the total vesting shares. In addition to this @blocktrades also has a vote from @minority-report.
As @steemit, @ned, @proskynneo do not vote for any witnesses and they control such a large amount of power, it is important to adjust for Vests that have not been used for either a witness vote or for a proxy. Only 31% of vests are used for witness votes.
We can now look at this data based on the used vests of 122.61bn. A 51% control of this is made up of 22 accounts as seen in the table below
@blocktrades, @clayop, @xeldal, @riverhead,@ lukestokes.mhth @pharesim, are in the top 20 witnesses. @smooth.witness @netuoso @steemd , @delegate.lafona are in the top 50.
@Pumpkin control 11% of the actual vests used to vote on witnesses
The witnesses in the top 50 that are also proxies, between them control 20% of the actual vests used in witness voting.
11 accounts holding 31% of the voting power. This is really interesting.
@pumpkin has massive weight. And this ties back to a post I did the other day, Unmasking Freedom – What the data can tell us. If you missed it you can check it out here
You see @pumpkin is set as a proxy for @freedom, the second largest stake holder on steemit. And look who else is set as proxy for @pumpkin
These are the same accounts identified as connected to @freedom. Maybe @pumpkin is @freedom. Maybe @pumpkin is an official steemit account? After all there were those witness updates from all of these accounts referencing https://steem.io. I am thinking that @pumpkin and @freedom are one and the same.
Looking at the 11 account which hold 31% of the voting power, and let’s add back in @Minoriry-reports @hendrikdegrote and @berniesanders as combined this will increase the voting weight to 35%
Lets see how they have voted when it comes to their witness votes
This table shows how these accounts voted for each other in terms of witness
And this table shows other witnesses that have the most amount of shared votes from these account.
@jest @gtg @pfunk @roelandp @thecryptodrive @anyx are all top 20 witnesses and @cervantes is in the top 50.
I find it very interesting from these charts that @pumpkin does not self vote as a witness, and they are also not voting for @blocktrades. Could @freedom be @blocktrades?
Conclusion
There are a number of accounts (11), which combined hold 31% of the voting power for the witness list. I know if I keep digging I will find the account that make up 51% which is a majority holding.
I guess we all need to take care when appointing a proxy for witness voting, and made sure we agree with who the proxy is voting for to represent you as a witness.
This analysis also shows a problem when it comes to new witnesses reaching the top 20, if a small few hold the majority of the power, then unless you get in with this golden circle, the changes of making it to the top 20 will be very difficult
The analysis also highlights a need for some sort of witness awareness campaign. Only a third of all vests are used for witness voting, either with a proxy or selecting your own witnesses. If we could get more people on Steemit to engage with witness voting the balance of power could be shifted.
I am part of a Steemit Business Intelligence community. We all post under the tag #BIsteemit. If you have an analysis you would like carried out on Steemit data, please do contact me or any of the #bisteemit team and we will do our best to help you...y
You can find #bisteemit on discord https://discordapp.com/invite/JN7Yv7jwe share a home with @steemitbc
Thank you for pulling the info @paulag. This is an excellent posts and demonstrates what one can derive from the blockchain looking purely at the facts and numbers.
To qualify this a bit, for anyone who will comment "explaining" some of these figures; the information derived here is what an impartial and objective party would see when pulling it by itself. Let's say an investor wanted to figure out how probable launching a steem-based product would be and wanted to ascertain the reliability of the blockchain.
Witnesses on their own for the most part are not the majority SP holders and many power down regularly to process the funds and instead investing them in maintaining the servers and services. The old miners were but those are disabled for the most part and are currently not processing blocks. Disabled witnesses still have votes attributed to them but they do nothing. Ned and them don't vote for witnesses as a default, otherwise the official account would determine the whole roster. Pumpkin is disabled and thus isn't voting for itself.
The thing about proxies is its absolutely vital for those who have organic accounts proxied to them to objectively approve and focus on what's best for Steem. Not all do that. Unfortunately the numbers don't show who cast their vote for frivolous reasons and who did their homework. We run a witness and, to a point, know who interviews witnesses in detail before voting and who voted just to spite someone else.
Your conclusion is right on and we hope everyone on the platform does due research and takes care with their vote. Top witnesses have a lot of say in hardforks and other important directional matters and every approval counts. One pumpkin with its 15k mv is 15,000 minnow accounts with just a few hundred SP each.
First of all thanks for encouraging me to do this post, and also for the detailed reply.
I did not take into consideration disabled witnesses, in fact I was not aware witnesses become disabled. how and when does this happen?
Listed as red one here. The orange one don't have recently updated their price feed.
https://steemdb.com/witnesses
They become disabled when the owner no longer wishes to run it. A command is run to remove the witness from the rotation. A lot of the old miners are on the witness list but haven't been online in a long time. Take a look at @drakos' https://steemian.info/witnesses for the list. All the ones in the red are disabled. If "block age" is very low and they're red that means the owner took it offline for maintenance.
In the case of pumpkin, it's been off since HF 16. You can also see that it supports the registration fee of 100 steem and some other parameters. Also that 174 accounts still vote for it despite it having long been disabled.
thank you for sharing this with me. I was looking for a list that went beyond 100 and couldn't find it.
You've done excellent work again Paula! I feel, that some sort of permanent UI onto this witness information would be invaluable, in the same way we expect information to be available for politicians so we know who their affiliations are.
Through your article, I have now learnt that I have 30 witness votes. Everybody screams go read the white paper, however I feel this information, and other details of how this whole platform works, remain "buried" and thus taken advantage of by those who figured out how it all fits together.
The average user who arrives at Steemit is looking for content, to create content and maybe earn Steem and beyond that have no real clue how the platform works. Is then any surprise that 60% have not voted for a witness.
Then on top of that, there are certain "shady" members who are out to win a popularity contest with their followers and have them vote them up to the golden witness circle, without really understanding what their chosen witness is supposed to do, or what they intend to do in that position. What is worrisome is when these aspiring witnesses conflate their self-aggrandising for serving and furthering the platform.
I am only learning so fast because I am studying the data, but the learning curve is well to big. Everyday I learn something new and I expect this to continue for some time
Very interesting. Freedom is still a mystery- but it seems you're one step closer lol.
I think the blocktrades theory is too wild a suggestion with nothing else to support it.
It might not be too wild, why have they avoided voting for each other. @freedom has gone out of the way to remain unknown. Relationships are proving very hard to look. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place and I should be looking at where there are no relationships :-)
Sometimes the picture in a piece of work is not in the colored pixels, but in the whitespace that is not filled in. You may be onto something with your thinking here. :D
it doesn't matter whom I vote for witness.. not like I will gain anything from it.. it's the same as typical politics.. they come to us before every elections and forget doing anything for us and come to us just before the next election.. this witness system is the same.. those who gets the vote will earn from mining.. nothing for me.. so indeed it's a waste of time.. but maybe it's important for those running witness nodes
I very must disagree with you. I don't run a node and it is important to me. Many of these witnesses provide tools and services, and have ideas for tools and services. They are also the closest any of us are to the development team
it really doesn't matter.. at the end of the day the system only needs 18 or 19 witness (still not sure of the exact number) to function.. so let it be anyone.. As for the developers they are being rewarded heavily through upvotes.. I think Utopian is running on 4million delegated SP
But Utopian is not steemit inc developers
really? and ned is a humble person delegating 4million for no reason?
I want to add to this conversation the "proxies" in and of themselves are not "bad", but the potential to abuse it is a reality, as you are documenting and opening a discussion about here.
I have been a witness for many months. I have about 15 people who choose to use me as their proxy. We discussed it in each case, and since they believe in ME and my principles and expectations for the chain and for the community, they chose me to help them manage their witness votes on their behalf.
The one proxy I do have in my roster of proxy voters that could be called into question is my account for my block chain based worldwide humanitarian aid foundation called YouAreHOPE, but i do not hide the fact that I operate and own that account and I proxy to myself, because Id pick the same witnesses to vote for on both accounts anyway, and I'm busy as hell as it is, running a non-steem company I own, being a witness, a community leader and the founder of the worlds first worldwide steem community and steem blockchain only based charity.
So let's be sure folks know proxying is not what you are calling out here, but rather, proxy rings of linked accounts that then cause unbalanced outcomes in witness ranking.
Further, you are right. My chances of making top 50 or top 20 are seriously nearly impossible, even with thousands of minnow votes. I currently have just under 200 votes, and while that is respectable, it would take me years for them to add up to much, because they are predominately tiny new members who respect what I'm doing, but have no real steem power or vests behind their votes and likely most never will to be brutally honest. I love all of them and am grateful they believe in me and my ethics, principles and accountable nature.
So yeah, proxies != bad in general.
Also, you used the word control a lot above. I have to ask what you mean. Witnesses do not really control much but the price feeds, interest rates and adoption of new hardforks, which witnesses have demonstrated they do not do blindly such as when they all refused to adopt HF16 last year until it was revised to be better for steem and the community.
And if we did control things, the goal would naturally always be to make steem more valuable, wouldn't it, barring some scenario where bad actors bent on ruining steem economy came in with some sort of hostile intent but even then, they would have to have the money in, to get the "control" you speak of, and would be self defeating to destroy their own large investment.
SO I would ask, other than to show how it all connects, what opinion are you trying to convey here. What outcome do you think this predicates. I am not suggesting i agree or disagree in advance with your intention or beliefs, only seeking to understand your points here in their entirety.
Thanks Paula, you do some really sophisticated analysis. Help me understand what you are telling us here.
Thanks!
@SirCork
Founder: @YouAreHOPE
Steem Top 100 witness
the word 'control' comes from the centralized corporate world we live in. In company law, a controlling vote is a vote of 51 % or more. Appointing a 'proxy' is also a feature of the corporate world I do not believe steemit and the blockchain want to be like the 'corporate world'. I believe that it wants a more decentralized operation. I think this analysis shows that we are not as decentralized as we think, and we still have some work to do.
Unfortunately it is possible for people to be in 'control' and have no other agenda but their own, or not to be aligned with the feelings and wants of the community. What one person things adds values, is not always the right and long term action to take.
Steemit has this huge opportunity, but the opportunity is in the hands of each and everyone here on steemit. I hope this posts shows the importance for each of us to get voting when it comes to witnesses
yeah I understand what the words mean. But what do you think witnesses actually "control" was really what I meant by my question?
witnesses control the forks, hence what gets implement here on steemit, is this not the case?
There is also a substantial financial reward for being in the top 20. Whos gets this can be controlled by the majority vesting shares
These are truths. And good points. My point was that they dont write the forks though, they just agree to them or not. Its been rare they didnt agree but it did happen at least twice, the last time being HF16 as I hear it told.
The rewards are a thing though, for sure, and you can walk into the place tomorrow with substantial money and buy all the top 20 slots if you want to dump that much SP into the takeover, so you have solid points there.
I just checked and on pure voter count alone, Id be literally 20 positions higher, because so many people vote for me, but they are all tiny minnows mostly, so despite having more voters than MANY above me on the list, based on my project which people love, I can't get up there, because the whales barely know who I am --- or feel threatened maybe?
Well @sircork you are now one minnow vote up.
Anyone in the top 20 that get relegated down will feel it $$$. Unfortunately where there is money there is motive. Personally I would like to see the payments for witnesses changed. But that is for a different post :-)
Thank you! You may already know my project is a charity - the first of its kind, based on steem alone and the community here, to be the worlds first block chain transparent, crypto driven worldwide humanitarian aid foundation. I appreciate you and your work and your support. You know from our previous encounters and history, the purity and future of this platform and the good we can do are of paramount importance to me. I cannot stand the dirty tactics, and deals that go on here, and that doesn't make me popular with the big fish, but I'd rather be right and nobody, than dirty and somebody.
you should pop over to our server one day, we have #social-investments and @papilloncharity, I think you would get on very well.
https://discord.gg/kGFYXx
Hy @paulag I am introducing about the effect of witness in steemit platform progress in Indonesia, Might I use the data and also part of your posted to my reference in realizing my project please?
Thank you so much @paulag
yes of course you can :-)
Thank you so much @paulag, You are very welcome :)
Much love from Indonesia
It's a good thing that some heavy hitters are abstaining, as it gives more relative weight to dolphin and minnow vests; which should mean more decentralisation.
I would agree, but we need to get minnows to take some control back and start voting on witnesses to balance the power more
Great report. I've been running a regular Witness Engagement Report to try and raise awareness about how few people with SP are voting for witnesses. I'd love to see more people get involved. As I mentioned in a comment on Dan's recent post, I do think the amount of voting power the Steemit company owns could become a systemic risk at some point in time. I don't see any solution to this unless they distribute SP outside of their control.
We need people like you to pull that kind of information to the surface. Good stuff. I am already part of a Steemit Business Intelligence community, and eventually we will even talk about that in one of the tags. I am following you
I'd say the current distribution of Steem and proxies are features of Steem and not a problem in itself. If some people consider the Steem to be too concentrated they'll be more incline to sell at a lower price and the investors who think the same will seek lower price too. It's a self regulating market.
Very valuable post obviously. That's why I gave it 100% upvote.
Yes it is a self regulating market, and we all have vested power that can contribute to the success of steemit by using it wisely to select witnesses